Education Needed

In Somalia, many children attending primary school start school much later than the recommended starting age of 6. As the 2011 MICS4 for Somaliland and Puntland shows, there are significant numbers of ‘secondary age’ children (14-17 years old) attending primary school.

At local levels, community education committees and child to child clubs play a key role in school administration and in building community resilience. Regular monthly meetings of the Education Sector Committee will be supported, as well as the technical working group (on, for example, gender or Education Management Information System), in order to strengthen the co-ordination of education-sector programmes.

At least 70 per cent of Somalia’s population is under the age of 30 – yet youth unemployment in Somalia is among the highest in the world, at 67 percent. Adar Foundation works to ensure that these young people have the opportunities to enable them to support themselves and their families, and enter the workforce. UNICEF and partners are empowering youth through technical education and vocational training for employment in both Puntland and Somaliland.

To address these critical issues facing access to education, Adar Foundation Somalia works across 5 thematic areas as part of a broad system of support to strengthen systems and provide service delivery. These include: Formal Basic Education, Alternative Basic Education, Youth Education and Skills Development, Institutional Strengthening – human resources and capacity development, and Education in Emergencies. Low rates of primary school enrolment and attendance, as well as high gender, geographic and minority disparities continue to pose huge challenges to development in Somalia. Adar Foundation’s focus areas enable Adar Foundation and its partners to provide education services for even the most hard to reach and/or marginalised children.